My wife is somewhat upset with me. Why, you might ask. Thinking about St. Valentine’s Day it struck me that I have more than one love affair in my life right now.
I am thinking about the “love affair” between me as the Software Reseller and the Software Publisher/Creator (I have to confess sometimes more than thinking about my wife).
And although I enjoy giving, today I would like to focus on what the Software Publisher can give me (the reseller).
Satisfy me
So what can the Software Publisher do to satisfy me and make the love affair to really blossom?
During my years selling software I have had a chance to experience several hundred “love affairs” with Software Publishers. Many good, some fantastic and a few where I felt neglected by my partner.
What Partner qualities?
I asked myself what qualities a Software Publisher should have to build a loving, fruitful and lasting relationship with the reseller?
For the most successful relationships I found the following factors to be most important.
Easy accessible and updated information. Keep your resellers informed about what is happening. Give them a head start in implementing changes and tell them about new releases/upgrades at least a month before they take place.
Provide easy access to files and documents. Don’t make the distribution system complicated.
Provide easy ways to order. Don’t make the reseller jump through hoops to get what they want. Easy and fast is important. Remember, with difficult systems also the end-client will have to wait for your software.
Clearly explain license and order procedures early in the process.
Be accessible for questions. We had a sale during the week after New Year. To clear this sale we needed contact with one of our partners. As it turned out our contact person had quit without letting us know. Suddenly we had no contact person and nobody else answered support. It took us a week to re-establish contact and the end-user was anything but happy. If you ever got stood up at a date you know the feeling.
Provide articles, video and other information regarding your products and give the reseller the right to republish the information.
An interest to work with the reseller in campaigns and make material available.
Some flexibility about price. As you will see in coming blog posts I am a strong advocate against competing with price, but in campaigns and for testing purpose a flexible price is important.
A fair percentage. Give the reseller an incentive to be creative marketing your software and you will have created a win-win situation for the long run.
I think our SoftwareCasa CEO said it best. When I asked her to summarize what makes a good relationship she said: “To have a feeling that we work in the same team.”
Until next time,
Peter Gillberg, your Software Casa-nova 😉
Happy St. Valentine’s Day! Great article and I loved your sign-off name. 🙂 Very creative.
I’ve added myself to your distribution list. I look forward to reading more of your posts!
Have a great day and good luck “making up” with your wife. 😉
My best,
Katie